


secrets, admissions, and a bit of blackmail

by ScottieIsImpatient



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Gen, gays being gays, i love these two, malcolm is stubborn, mlm/wlw solidarity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26333038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScottieIsImpatient/pseuds/ScottieIsImpatient
Summary: Hoshi gets Malcolm talking about his crush. Malcolm gets Hoshi talking about hers.
Relationships: Hoshi Sato/T'Pol, Malcolm Reed & Hoshi Sato, Malcolm Reed/Charles "Trip" Tucker III
Comments: 15
Kudos: 56





	secrets, admissions, and a bit of blackmail

**Author's Note:**

> What's this? Me posting ANOTHER ent fic? It's more likely than you think.
> 
> Yeah I found this on my computer, thought it was cute, fixed it up, and boom. I may or may not make a sequel idk.
> 
> Hope you like!
> 
> **Not beta read, all mistakes are my own, Star Trek is not mine, I'm just a starving art student**

Hoshi let herself fall into the chair with a sigh, her second cup of coffee in hand. She tugged at the collar of her uniform, which she’d been wearing for a grand total of fourteen hours now, never so desperate to have a shower.

But, no, she wasn’t quite off duty yet. T’Pol wanted her to finish the translations before they returned to… what was the planet’s name again? Hoshi slouched in her seat and brought a hand to her forehead. The smell of coffee was appealing but she couldn’t find the strength to even lift her arm.

How she ever managed to develop a crush on the science officer Hoshi will never know. Perhaps it was their interaction on that Klingon ship and the subsequent meditation sessions. Whatever it was, Hoshi was starting to get pretty sick of it.

The longing, that is. T’Pol was too interesting a person to get sick of.

Lost in her fantasies, Hoshi didn’t notice Malcolm until he tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hm?” The linguist glanced up. “Oh, Lieutenant.”

“Can I sit here?” By Malcolm’s tone this wasn’t the first time he’d asked. Hoshi cleared her throat and gestured to the chair across from her.

“By all means.”

Malcolm sat, his own PADD and beverage in hand. “I see you’ve decided to embrace your Britishness,” Hoshi joked.

Malcolm raised an eyebrow.

“Your drink. Tea.”

“Ah.” Malcolm lifted it up and took a sip. “No, I’ve just had too much coffee today. Any more and I’m worried I may gain superspeed.”

As professional and stiff as the Lieutenant may be while on duty, he became more relaxed around those he trusted. Enough to crack jokes. The only one he couldn’t seem to relax around, besides the captain, was Trip, but Hoshi was sure another reason hid behind that awkwardness. She’d been meaning to ask, actually.

“What have you got there?” Malcolm pointed at her PADD.

Hoshi sighed. “Just more linguistics stuff. T’Pol wants me to finish these before tomorrow, when we reach Ra… Re…”

“Reyson II,” Malcolm supplied.

“Sounds like ‘raisin’.”

A smile crossed Malcolm’s lips. “Raisin planet. I never much cared for raisins, however.”

“Me neither.” Hoshi’s gaze moved down to the PADD in the Lieutenant’s hands. “What’s that?”

“Something much less interesting than linguistics,” Malcolm answered. “Commander Tucker’s trying something new, which, of course, is bound to end in a disaster. I caught him snooping about the armoury trying to recruit some of my men, if you can believe it! And now he’s got me looking over these damn schematics,” he waved the PADD in the air. “That man drives me up the wall.”

_Now’s my chance,_ Hoshi thought. “But he’s cute.”

The reaction was immediate. Malcolm’s eyes widened and his face went red, his mouth hanging open. “Pardon?”

“He’s cute,” Hoshi repeated innocently. “You think he’s cute, don’t you? Isn’t that why you’re always staring at him?”

“I’m not staring,” Malcolm stuttered.

Hoshi gave him her best “oh, yeah?” look.

Malcolm opened his mouth, closed it, rethought, and opened it again. “Th-this isn’t relevant. The Commander is bloody nuisance, that’s what he is. I would never consider a relationship beyond professional with him.”

“But you don’t deny that he’s cute?”

“No. Yes! Wh-what’s with the sudden interest?” Malcolm looked close to straight up bolting from the room. “You don’t have your eye on him, do you?”

Hoshi shook her head. “Not my type. Too… obnoxious.”

“That’s the truth.”

“Besides,” Hoshi said, “I’ve got my eye on someone else.”

Malcolm took a sip of tea before saying, “Subcommander T’Pol?” and Hoshi almost threw her PADD in the air. At her surprise, Malcolm started laughing.

Hoshi tried, and failed miserably, to scowl. “You can’t just say stuff like that out loud, Lieutenant.”

“You did,” Malcolm pointed out. “Come on, Hoshi, tell me. It’s T’Pol isn’t it? I can tell by the way you look at her.”

Hoshi rolled her eyes. “Like you pay attention to anything besides weapons.” At Malcolm’s hurt look she realized she’d gone too far. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

“It’s alright.” Malcolm waved it off. “You’re right. I do get a little caught up in torpedoes sometimes.”

Hoshi mustered a grin and quickly switched the topic. “If you must know, yes. I’ll admit it freely.” She paused. “Unlike you.”

“I have nothing to admit,” Malcolm insisted, his face turning a shade of red once again.

“Your body language says otherwise.”

“My- oh, damn you and your linguistic superpowers.”

“Linguistic superpowers?” Hoshi glanced down at her mug. “Maybe _I’ve_ had too much coffee if I’m the one developing superpowers.” She lifted her gaze up and smiled. “I can tell I’ve got you backed into a corner, Lieutenant. C’mon, it’s just us in here! I swear I won’t tell a soul about your little crush.”

“It’s not a crush,” Malcolm said quickly. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “’Crush’ makes it sound so… middle school.”

Hoshi shrugged.

“But if you must know,” he continued, “I suppose there is a small, _small_ chance that I _may_ feel just the _tiniest_ bit of… attraction.” He’d never looked so completely flustered.

Hoshi was getting a kick out of it.

“You didn’t say ‘small’ enough times,” the ensign chuckled.

Malcolm shot her a playful glare. “I don’t even know what prompted it – I thought I hated him. Everything about him just grinds my gears.”

“And you wish he’d grind you?”

Malcolm almost spat out his tea. “ _Hoshi!_ ” he sputtered while the linguist threw her head back in laughter.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please continue.”

“Well, now I’m not quite sure I _want_ to continue if you’re going to say stuff like that.”

“No, please,” Hoshi begged, trying to get her laughter under control. “Please, I swear, I won’t do it again.”

Malcolm gave her an incredulous look but started to ramble again, surprising Hoshi just a little bit.

“I’ll save you the boring details of _when_ and skip right over to the _why –_ I don’t know the ‘why’. One minute I was disliking everything about the guy. I hated how he didn’t take anything seriously and I hated how the only thing he seemed to give a damn about was the warp engine. And then everything I hated about him turned into things I liked. His blond hair, his bloody honey-sweet accent – very stereotypical American, if I do say so.

“Even the way he would talk and talk without stopping became something I daresay found appealing. Rather than wanting to slam some sense into him, I found myself just wanting to kiss him to make him shut up.”

Malcolm’s eyes widened as he realized what he’d just blurted out at the same time Hoshi threw her hands in the air and exclaimed, “there it is!”

“You heard none of that,” Malcolm stuttered.

“Oh, I definitely heard it,” Hoshi retaliated.

“Please don’t tell anyone.” The armoury officer’s tone was nothing less than desperate. “You can’t tell anyone, least of all Commander Tucker.”

Hoshi’s eyebrows flew up. “Oh? But he’s the one you’re…”

Malcolm shot her a glare.

“Oh. _Oh._ ” Realisation dawned on the linguist. “You think he doesn’t reciprocate.”

“ _Think_?” Malcolm echoed. “I _know._ The man seems to hate my guts!”

“Like how you hate _his_ guts?”

Malcolm went silent, his own sense of realisation crashing down on him.

“He’s flirting,” Hoshi continued. “You know. In that weird way that guys flirt.”

“What on earth do you mean by that?”

Hoshi waved her hand, taking a sip of coffee. “Aggressive banter. Challenging each other. Honestly, why can’t you guys just buy each other flowers and use cheesy pick-up lines like _normal_ people?”

“Oh, Commander Tucker uses cheesy pick-up lines.” Malcolm held his head in his hands, almost embarrassed. “Trust me.”

“So, he’s flirting with you.”

Malcolm’s gaze snapped back up. He looked torn between wanting to deny it and begging it to be true. Hoshi grinned.

“You’re bantering with each other. He’s using pick-up lines to get on your nerves. You literally just said how you always seem to find him in the armoury – he’s finding excuses to spend time with you! I don’t blame him for having a crush on you, honestly. I’d probably give him some competition if I weren’t interested in someone else.”

“O-oh.” Malcolm ran a hand through his hair again, flustered, clearly unsure how to take this. “Ehm… thanks, I guess.”

“No problem.” Hoshi finished off her coffee in one swig and slapped her mug down on the table like she’d just done a shot. “Now, I should probably get back to work.”

As she moved to stand up, Malcolm’s eyes widened. “Wh-hey!” The Lieutenant stumbled to his feet as well, almost knocking his own beverage over. “I just told you everything. I spilled my deepest secret to you, Ensign!”

“Yes, it was a fascinating story, Lieutenant.”

“Y-you’re not going to do the same?”

Hoshi flashed an innocent smile. “I’ll tell you later, I promise. But there’s a catch.”

Malcolm’s exhaled harshly. “Oh, lord…”

“You’re going to invite the Commander to dinner. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

At the shade of red Malcolm’s face went, anyone would assume she’d just told him to fuck the Commander in public. “ _Excuse_ me?”

The crew began trickling into the mess hall for dinner, so Hoshi lowered her voice. “Nothing serious, Malcolm. Just ask him to have dinner. You’ve done worse – I know that for a fact.”

“Disarming a mine that’s attached to my bloody leg seems like a walk in the park compared to this!” Malcolm exclaimed. He’d seem to have forgotten that there were now others in the room – others that could hear his outburst. Quickly, he lowered his own voice to a harsh whisper. “You realize I could order you to tell me.”

“But you won’t,” said Hoshi brightly. “You wouldn’t pull rank on something like this.”

“Fine,” Malcolm relented. “I’ll… ask him to dinner. But only if _you_ do the same with Subcommander T’Pol.”

Hoshi’s smile wavered. She’d done her best to conceal the shock but keeping track of her own body language was much harder than reading another’s.

Malcolm looked incredibly smug with himself when Hoshi sighed, “fine, I will.”

“It’s a deal, then.” Malcolm stuck out his hand. Hoshi resisted the urge to roll her eyes. _How predictable._

“Deal,” replied the linguist.


End file.
